Part II: Stop Playing by Other People’s Rules and Start Making Your Own

Here are the remaining top seven rules that you may need to break in order to achieve success in your life and career.  If you missed the first four rules, check out the May 6, 2015 post.

Top 7 Rules to BREAK to Achieve Career Success (Cont.)

Rule # 5: If you give 100 percent to your employer, they will give 100 percent to you.  You should give your all to anything that you do.  However, when I ask students or clients why they are spending so much time at jobs they don’t even like, they often say, “so that I’ll be safe if they have to do lay-offs.”  In my experience, people are let go from jobs for three main reasons: (1) they are not well connected to the organization’s key decision makers (or they butt heads with those who are); (2) they are older employees who unfortunately can be easily replaced by two younger staffers with that same salary; and (3) they fail to demonstrate the “essential” value of what they do and bring to the table.  Not taking lunch, staying late every night, and working from home on the weekends doesn’t make you invaluable; it simply makes you overwhelmed and resentful.  Whatever you job you do, do it to the best of your ability.  However, you should work wisely by spending “overtime” hours that demonstrate your value and help increase your exposure/connection to decision makers.  

Rule # 6: Getting an advanced degree is the solution to your communications/marketing career problems:  What’s required to succeed professionally varies from industry to industry.  After working for years in marketing, communications, and entertainment, I have found that people who have difficulty advancing in their current company or this industry without an advanced degree, often still have problems moving up or into a lateral position even with the enhanced education. They may not only continue to be overlooked for opportunities, but also could be tens of thousands of dollars in debt after going back to school. If your company is paying for your education and they have told you that this degree will expand your internal opportunities, go for it.  If that’s not the case, why not consider a certificate program or other unconventional ways to fill this experience and educational “gap.” Certificate programs and other professional development opportunities offer chances to make yourself more qualified for communications/marketing-related jobs.  In the end, careers are a lot like high school.  It’s often more about what you’ve done previously and who you know now that really matters. Chances are if you’re not already one of the “professional cool kids,” wearing some new “designer label” isn’t going to make you cool or get others to like you.

Rule # 7: Follow all advice from those who have done what you want to do. Learning from the successes and failures of others who have done the very thing you want to do is a great way to create your individual path.  However, learning from others doesn’t mean that you have to follow that advice ‘word for word.’  Career advice is not one size fits all.  Sometimes what worked for one person, even someone who has been very successful, may not be a right fit for you. Ask others for ideas and suggestions but beware of those who say, “you have got to do this or that.” Aside from having a telephone, email, business cards, and a web site, you may need to ignore other people’s “gotta do’s.”

I worked as a successful sports and entertainment PR consultant for years without the big office or personal assistant that so many people told me I “had to have” in order to be successful. Truth is, the majority of my multi-national corporate clients never once questioned, let alone minded, holding meetings at their offices or places convenient for them.  

I’ve shared seven rules that you might want to break. Over the next week, identify seven rules that you have been following that have NOT served you well, and create seven new rules that can help you advance in your career.

Stop playing by other people’s rules and start making your own

Top Seven (7) Rules to BREAK to Achieve Career Success

Rule # 1: Only apply for jobs that exactly match your qualifications and experience.   If I  had only applied for opportunities that exactly matched my qualifications, I wouldn’t have had 90 percent of the experiences I’ve had throughout my career.  “Fake it till you make it” doesn’t mean lying but rather learning how to accentuate what’s key to your audience and withhold what’s not.   Your potential employer doesn’t need to know your special events “clients” were your best friends from college, or that start-up business you did social media marketing for was your cousin’s new venture.  Equally, start thinking of job requirements as “suggestions” and not mandatory qualifications.  Say and do whatever’s necessary to get your foot in the door.  Count your two summer internships toward your “experience in XYZ field” to come up with the required “number” someone’s looking for.  As long as you are not lying, “omit” all the details and facts that really don’t matter.  What helps you get the job or opportunity is having confidence in what you’ve done and how you can help someone today and in the future. It’s not about perfectly matching some words on a piece of paper.  

Rule # 2: Networking means getting to know the people “at the top.” Networking is about building relationships with people at all levels of your organization or industry.  Everyone may not have access to senior leaders but anyone can use a 360 degree networking approach to create allies in the most unlikely places.  It was an entry-level colleague who passed along the name of a PR executive who helped me getting hired at AT&T.   Additionally, it was someone in NBC’s Page Program (a prestigious television network “externship”) who connected me to resources that some senior entertainment publicists couldn’t access.  Real networking is connecting to everyone you encounter, and remembering that sometimes your peers, or those who lack a prestigious title, may be the very people who are most likely and most willing to introduce you to the ‘movers and shakers’ who do.

Rule # 3 Office politics only take place in the workplace.  Your ability to climb the proverbial corporate ladder may have little to do with what goes on inside the office and everything to do with what happens outside the workplace.  If you are a runner and discover that the vice president of your division jogs in the park every morning at 6:30 a.m., guess what time you should be jogging there too?  Perhaps signing up for that volunteer event this weekend that your president or general manager is also going to do, may be the perfect way to get hours of uninterrupted “face time” with a senior decision maker.  Getting an “A” in office politics requires you to do your homework, think out-of-the-box, and do lots of extra credit assignments outside and not within the workplace.

Rule # 4: Becoming an entrepreneur means instantly swapping security for the unknown.   The best and perhaps most effective way to create a successful business is to actually start it while working for someone else.  Balancing your full-time gig and a client or two on the side is the perfect way to test entrepreneurial waters.  It can also teach you how to manage multiple priorities while maintaining the safety net of a steady pay-check.  Instead of plunging head first into a new business, the smartest way to become an entrepreneur is to start slow and build as go.  Eventually you’ll have to release the life raft and swim into unchartered waters.  Starting your business as a side hustle that grows over time may save you time, money, and the headaches that often come with starting a business venture from scratch all at once.

Check out livingonpurposeproject.com on this month for the rest of my top seven rules to break; compelling conversations; and suggestions to create your own rules for success.  Think of one rule you can break TODAY to help expand your life and career options and opportunities.